Thank you for publishing Joseph Shattan’s work. It’s a delight to see him writing again!

His description of Gaza’s relative normalcy resembles my own experience. Some 30 years ago, I was a student, studying Arabic in Egypt. I first saw Gaza as we drove to Israel, a trip made possible by the recently-signed peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. As we arrived in Gaza, I was shocked: This is the fabled poverty of the Palestinians? Large parts of Cairo were more crowded, more impoverished.

That, in fact, was a significant part of the impetus behind that peace treaty. It was not uncommon to hear Cairenes complain that the Palestinians want to fight to the last Egyptian. — Laurie Mylroie Washington, D.C.

Someone needs to tell Mr. Baldwin that giving the film and TV folks a tax break is completely unfair to everyone else. They should suffer the same as the rest of New York.

What is the likelihood that he is going to change his mind when his livelihood is at stake? — Don Goodman

Alec Baldwin warns the New York Governor that “if these tax breaks are not reinstated…film production and television production in this town (NYC) will collapse, and it’s all going to go to California.”

Has Baldwin taken a look at California lately? The entire state is collapsing — including the studios.

In the last year, MGM stock has gone from $65 a share to under $2 a share, SONY has gone from $50 to $15, and Dreamworks has gone from $32 to $17.

Baldwin has been supporting “tax and spend” politicians his entire life. So, pay the price, Alec! If he had any talent at all, he might have an Oscar to melt down so he could feed the family. — Jack Hughes Chicago, Illinois

A great article, Mr. Hillyer, but as a wiser man once said, a lie will travel half-way around the world before the truth get it’s boots on.

With the left and their media whores pounding away at Cox, deregulation, Republicans, Bush, etc., the truth that traitors like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and others created the financial mess will never be heard. And even when someone writes about it the books will collect dust on back shelves.

Then the weak Republicans will, as usual, give up on the truth and actually start playing into the lie because they know the morons they are talking to believe it instead. Cowards.

The same practice is going on with the attacks on Rush and the “far right” by the likes of David Frum (listen to his argument on Mark Levin’s March 4th show – the podcast is free) that think the problem with the GOP is the evil conservatives that stick to principle. You see, Frum knows you can’t sell liberty, freedom and limited government to the morons coming out of our public schools so he thinks we should stop.

Pure hacks like Frum and David Brooks don’t give a rat’s behind about principles because they are no different from Democrats — power hungry [men] that just want to win elections for their own personal gain. — Greg Barnard Franklin, Tennessee

Let us fill in some blanks of this financial lunacy that is emission reductions. First Americans must be told that global warming is a natural phenomenon that has occurred many times before and there is no scientific fact that points to man as the cause of this, if it exists at all trend. That is fact.

Second, let us look at the new Obamanation: the cap and spend marketplace that he will create. It is a simple concept. The government in its infinite wisdom decides how much carbon can be emitted. To create the market that amount must be less than is emitted today. There are industries that emit that the government favors. These will have their emissions quota raised. Those increases will be the “credits” that are sold. So those industries will be able to increase their financial wellbeing by selling a valueless asset namely pollution they don’t make.

Then industries the government doesn’t like, utilities for example, will have their permitted emissions cut well below what they need to provide you with power. They will have to shut down or buy these “credits”. How will they retain their financial viability? They will pass the cost of the credits, likely to be in the trillions of dollars, to you. As the President said while he was campaigning “utility bills are likely to skyrocket.” Using a model — admittedly a guess because we only know this is coming, not how big the freight train that flattens us will be — I calculate consumer electric bills will rise by about $1,000 to $1700 a year depending on whether your electricity is provided by nuclear and natural gas or coal and oil, the latter being the most costly under these rules. These numbers are only the projected increase not the total bill.

Then I believe it is safe to bet that this socialist government that sees working Americans as ATMs will add an additional cost on middle income families’ electric bills to help the lame and lazy pay theirs. Let’s do a guess that is $350 a year.

Now, we’re not finished with this analysis yet because the stated purpose for this draconian energy tax on citizens is to make utilities convert to cleaner fuels. That will be difficult because the only cleaner fuels are wind, very unreliable in terms of always being ready to spin blades and photovoltaic which is hugely expensive because it is so inefficient and would require a huge land mass to set up a commercial sized production facility. Photovoltaic plants would be a very good source of electricity in places where Democrats run wild — like Massachusetts. No sun no electricity.

But Congress is not a deliberative body that permits reality to intrude on its desired outcomes so let’s slice and dice this. I got this information from a major utility company and I am rounding for ease of explanation. Let’s say one of these new plants using non-existent technology will cost about what a combined cycle oil and gas fueled plant costs — about $1, 000,000,000 for 1600 megawatts. (I want to point out that this is a very rosy assumption, because utilities could rebuild conventional power plants on the existing sites in many case but would have to acquire vast tracks of land for photovoltaic plants –perhaps a million acres for replacement of their fleet of plants.)

So now let us add the cost of replacement of their generating fleet with these yet-to-exist technologies. This is a huge number, so big I am frankly unable to calculate it. But let’s again be minimalists and say the cost to a consumer is $200 a month for 30 years or another $2400 a year on your electric bill. Let’s also add in a component to take care of the lame and lazy at the same $350 a year we used above and we can project your electric bill to rise by about $5,000 dollars a year in 2012.

Then to conclude, remember everything you buy requires energy to make. All this will be subject to the same tax. As will gasoline and heating oil. It is not unreasonable to project the cost of living will double very quickly in the next five years due to this huge confiscation of your wealth. This also is likely to plunge us into a catastrophic depression so severe that we will wish for the good old days of the 1930’s when unemployment was only abut 20%. — Jay Molyneaux North Carolina

Re: George Neumayr’s recent piece, it is insightful as ever, and seems precisely to summarize the mess we are in. It also points out an essential truth: Apparently, the American people, as they exist today, are easy to hoodwink. We elected Obama, in spite of the fact that anyone willing to look could see who and what he was. Now he is just being himself, and doing exactly what a radical left, Alinsky-trained community organizer would be expected to do. The fundamental problem seems to be either an indifferent population, or an ignorant one. To paraphrase Jefferson, to expect to be free, and ignorant, is to expect what never was, and never can be. — David Reich Auburn, New York

“We will be checking the results in 2012, Barack, and holding you accountable.”

Bwahaha.

Everyone knew Obama was a socialist going into the voting booth and they voted for socialism. As much a liar as he is, Obama is delivering on his socialism which Bush made respectable when he lunged for his manual on central planning from the institute for advanced economic studies published by the CCCP.

The zeitgeist of the age — given to us by left-wing educational institutions — is control and feudalism. You all gave away your freedom and you will never get it back.

To cover some of the Rush-bashing ‘conservatives,’ I have a new term for you (not new, actually, but historically often with a religious connotation): ‘conservative’ scrupulosity. — Samuel R. Walker

The current Obama “Enemies List” indicates both fear and fecklessness. They see their policies failing and can only think to attack private citizens who offer opposing views. I don’t mean to add a vindictive note but liberals rode anti-Iraq war sentiment into power and are now 100% accountable. Neither Rush, nor Santelli nor even the estimable Mr. Tyrrell hold elected office nor design public policy. The hard left in America has craved the actual power they now hold for decades, they have undermined every battle fought and profited at every victory earned to promote their statist agenda. It matters not who they attack or why. They will now bear the righteous wrath of a nation imbued with centuries of human freedom. Brace yourselves for the Great Reckoning. It has been a long time coming and shall wash away this malignant arrogance from our polity. Rush Lives. — I. Conner Klast Pompano Beach, Florida

Jeffrey Lord gives us a timely history lesson, using the examples of Adams, Gandhi, and Martin, and one all Americans should heed. However, his imagined “morning in America” scenario is but a pleasant fiction. America is just too big and heterogeneous for such to occur. And let’s not forget that not everyone is alarmed at the growing power and intrusiveness of government. For one thing, about half of all Americans now pay little or no income tax. What is there for them to worry about? Slightly higher gasoline tax? For another, perhaps 15-20% of Americans are true liberals (in the modern context) and are happy to see bigger government.

Mr. Lord does seem to suggest that the solution must come from outside normal political channels, and it is difficult to argue with that. From the thirties onward, what has been accomplished within those channels? Even Ronald Reagan couldn’t turn back the tide, although perhaps he held it at bay for several years.

What is needed, then, is a solution (1) not utilizing the extant political system; (2) which can start with smaller numbers of involved individuals, where action can be coordinated, and then gather momentum; and (3) will force Federal acquiescence in some form or other.

The folks most involved here are those who have always played by the rules: Purchased homes they knew they could afford, paid their mortgages on time, paid their taxes, never scammed anyone, never “flipped” anything, never defaulted, but worked long, hard hours and asked in return only to be allowed to live their lives and raise their families. They are the ones facing financial bondage and slavery, as the Lord of Redistribution levels his gaze on them. They will have to figure out what to do, or not. —David Reich Auburn, New York

I sent the below letter to Barack Obama and my Federal officials and included a tea bag:

Mr. President,

As the early colonists of the USA did on December 16, 1773 I am starting a Washington DC Tea Party for the same reason as they did: TOO MANY TAXES. THE STIMULUS TAX INCREASE is the straw that broke the taxpayers back.

This is my token way of tossing YOUR TEA into Boston Harbor. I will be contacting as many people as I can to do the same thing if they feel the government is overtaxing us. We need TAX RELIEF, not a bunch of NEW TAXES. No reply necessary, except to start putting the taxpayer first.

I encourage anyone who feels the stimulus bill is the tax that broke the taxpayers back to do the same, and to send a tea bag to each of your members of Congress. Please pass this idea along to others. Send the president and members of Congress a tea bag, and include a SHORT, polite letter explaining why you are doing it. The address to send it to the president is: